The Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the U of A partnered with the University of Missouri in hosting their Annual Spring Industrial Advisory Board Meeting and Research Symposium. It was the first time the meeting has been hosted in a virtual environment.

The CELDi meeting brought together faculty and students from University of Arkansas, University of Missouri, Virginia Tech, Kansas State University, and Oklahoma State University. Industry partners Boeing, Defense Logistics Agency, Schneider Electric and Medtronic also participated in the virtual meeting. During the day-long virtual event, more than 52 people participated.

The meeting featured two keynote speakers, Timothy Murnin, director of strategy and enable manufacturing, supply chain and operations at Boeing; and Grant Taylor, vice president for NAM logistics at Schneider Electric.

Industry representatives are becoming more involved in presenting alongside their university research teams. Randolph Bradley of Boeing and Ronald McGarvey of the University of Missouri presented on “CELDi Operations-Research Vision for Industry/Academia Discussion in 19 Minutes (COVID-19).”

Faculty research presentations are the focus of the meeting with completed projects presented by the faculty researcher/primary investigator of the projects.

This year’s universities and research partner presentations included:

• Defense Logistics Agency, University of Arkansas, Manuel Rossetti
• Medtronic, University of Arkansas, Payam Parsa
• Schneider Electric, University of Missouri, Jim Noble and Ronald McGarvey
• Schneider National, Kansas State University, Ashesh Sinha

A “speed mentoring” session has become a favorite activity for our students and industry partners. The objective is to provide CELDi students the opportunity to meet several industry representatives and gain professional insights from multiple perspectives in a short time.

During the poster session, students presented project posters to industry members. Each poster was evaluated and submitted with remarks. This year, the conference featured 14 posters, with a tie for first place in the poster presentations. Devaraj Radha Krishnan from Oklahoma State University and Joshua Jensen from University of Arkansas tied for the best poster presentation, and each was presented with an award.

Each year, CELDi recognizes outstanding student researchers. This year Nathan Clark, senior from the University of Arkansas, Katie Stachowiak, senior from Kansas State University, and Grace Floyd, senior from the University of Missouri were recognized as Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers. Zeynab Oveysi, graduate student from the University of Missouri was recognized as the Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher.

Organizers said the meeting, open to all industry members, invited guests, faculty and students from partnering universities was a success. Some comments from attendees included:

“It gave me new perspectives on a variety of topics.“

“I got to see what others are working on.  It was of great benefit for students.”

“This was a really good idea, conducting the conference online.”

“Thank you for making everything work out! I’m glad we were able to still hold the conference in light of everything that’s happening.”

For more information on CELDi, contact Manuel Rossetti, CELDi director, rossetti@uark.edu, 479-575-6756. For more information on the Spring 2021 Conference, contact Sandy Sehon, sehon@uark.edu 479-575-7936.

The Center for Logistics and Distribution is an applied research and education consortium consisting of:

• Several major research universities
• Member organizations from commercial, military and government sectors of the economy
• Center Graduate of The National Science Foundation (NSF I/UCRC).